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hey guys, im new to the forums and i just want your opinion on something. i want to build an iron man helmet for camp this year and i need it to be as cheap as possible and still look good. some guy on instrctables made one out of just air hardening clay and it look pretty good. heres the link: http://www.instructables.com/id/Iron-Man-Helmet/

would this be a good way to make one on the cheap? would it look better if i made this then put bondo on it? and how much is bondo at its cheapest.sry for all the noob questions. i just really want answers from experienced builders. thanks

First: I would never, ever recommend sending anyone to the 405th website. They don't take kindly to new members and they have a very low tolerance for any sort of questions. The Replica Prop Forum is a much better resource. They have a much more open environment and are more welcoming, and there's several members who have various Iron Man projects running over there.

Agent, why don't you think Pepakura would be good for you? It's a bit more work in the long run, but nothing difficult, as opposed to sculpting something and having it be symmetrical and such. I've never had trouble with any of my pepakura projects, and I'm going on 38 helmets from it now.

As for air-dry clay, I wouldn't know; perhaps one of our other members could help you there.

well doesnt pepakura invlove a lot of time to make the designs and then more time to fold it and everything? i just wanna know what u guys think about doing just a clay helmet and then possible putting bondo on top. thanks for the input so far

If you're willing to wait until I get the designs finished, I can send you .pdf files of my Iron Man helmet templates. Just print it on cardstock, score the lines I mark, cut it out, and then glue it with superglue. I'm currently working on what I hope will be my final version of the faceplate and my mk. 4 of the main helmet itself. Once I have them done, I'm going to start on the ears and lower back of the helmet.

Typically, once you make a pepakura project, you use fiberglass resin on the outside, then fiberglass the inside, then bondo the outside to smooth it out. That's the process I'll be using to prep mine for casting. Making a clay helmet will take longer, cost more, and be more difficult than a pepakura project, even if you have to do the pepakura from scratch. In addition, you don't have to worry about problems while it dries or making a mold from it (so that you have a wearable one) or anything else. Pepakura helmets, once finished properly (using the above method) can be immediately painted, padded and worn if you so wish, whereas clay helmets need to be molded and cast to have a wearable helmet.

i would think that, although that helmet looks really nice and sturdy, if it was dropped once from a short distance it would break into a bunch of pieces and wouldn't be repairable. if you're going to sculpt it as a display piece that'll sit on your shelf it should be fine. if you're going to wear it you may want to do what these guys are saying and reinforce it with something like fiberglass. bondo wouldn't strengthen it to the point where it would be durable enough to survive a short fall onto a hard surface. bondo probably wouldn't strengthen it at all to tell you the truth.

using a pep model as a base for this helmet seems like it would be a lot cheaper than using any type of clay. clay's pretty expensive, and if you read that tutorial, the guy also started with a cast of his own head, so you would need some type of mannequin head to use as a base to hold the clay for sculpting. it would be impossible to try to do this without some type of solid head shaped item as the clay is not strong enough to hold its shape under its own weight.
considering the cost of a mannequin head, clay, bondo, and paint it's my opinion that you're gonna be $100 into this thing before you know it.

i'd take the offer of getting the pep files sent to you (i know that if anyone offered me that offer, i'd jump on it) and try your hand at doing it that way. it will still probably cost you $100 bucks or so in the end, but at least you won't break it the first time that you bump your head into something.

I've seen some very nice results using the papkura method. All you have to do is cut and assemble the pieces, and then you can use resin to stiffen the model. After that you can refine the surface with spot putty, and then paint it all up. There are some awesome Halo helmets done this way, as well as a number of other lids I've seen. It's easy, relatively fast, and gives a good end result. If you can get the templates from someone you should have no problem assembling it.

hey guys, I've started to build Gemini Khan's ( therpf.com) iron man out of cardboard, and when I'm done, I need a way to finish it up so it looks good. I was thinking different layers and types of papermache. If you have better ideas that can cost under $10 please tell me. I'll post pics as soon as I finish up the cardboard version. Thanks!